The trail goes down between swamp on each side. It didn't take long before I encountered a big SPLASH! A large alligator was sunning on the bank and quickly leaped back into the water just 10-15 feet away from me. Holy Gators Batman!! No instead of watching all the beautiful Egrets and Blue Herons, I'm looking out for gators!
I find the first cache and continued south before rounding the corner eastward towards the next geocache site. I get within 600 feet of the cache and encounter my first gator blocking to trail. This one must have been 10-12 feet in length! It was just sitting there watching me and contemplating dinner! I tossed a few rocks to see if I could get him to go into the water. No luck.
OK, so now I must backtrack and ride the 5.8 miles around just to get to the other side of him! So off I went.
On the other side of the loop I encountered yet another rather large gator sunning across the trail. I stopped and took a couple of photos (wishing I had my 300mm telephoto lens with me instead!). Just as put the cap back on the lens and strapped the Nikon back over my shoulder, he stands up, whips around, and runs into the water. While I missed the shot, he did clear the path for me to continue by!
After finding the last cache on my list, I continued back to where the first gator was hoping he was gone by now. From that point it was a shorter ride back to the Jeep than to turn around again. Unfortunately, he was still there.This time I decided just to make a lot of noise and continue to ride towards it slowly. It worked! It soon stood up and walked across into the water. My path was once again clear and I rode back to the Jeep.
I'll be back soon with my bigger lens! Anybody else want to go with me? Preferably somebody slower! Just kidding...
That last gator looks well fed!
ReplyDeleteOmg! That gator is big! I need to be more careful walking there!
ReplyDelete